A Typical Tuesday
by SciFiDVM
Summary: Annie gets some news that changes everything. Set about a month after episode 3.14 and incorporates some of the promos (and completely ignores or contradicts others) for episode 3.15.


**Title: **A Typical Tuesday

**Show: **Covert Affairs

**Summary: **Annie gets some news that changes everything

**Spoilers:** Everything through episode 3.14 – Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) and half of the promos for 3.15

**Pairings:** Annie/Eyal friendship, Annie/Auggie friendship

**Rating:** T

**Disclaimer:** I make no money from writing this (and barely any from my actual job…) and it is purely for entertainment (unlike aforementioned job). I have no ownership of Covert Affairs or the characters portrayed herein. Let's be honest, if I did, I totally wouldn't share Eyal…

**A/N:** This one was supposed to be a short (1000 word) angsty piece. Instead it took on a life of its own and decided to take nearly 9,000 words to run the full gambit of emotions. If the beginning is hard for you, just hang in there and I promise it will get better.

When my time comes  
Forget the wrong that I've done  
Help me leave behind some  
Reasons to be missed  
Don't resent me  
And when you're feeling empty  
Keep me in your memory  
Leave out all the rest

**Leave Out All the Rest – Linkin Park**

It was the morning of the Tuesday before Christmas as Annie drove through the security checkpoints at Langley. The air was crisp and chilly, but the sun still shone prominently over the horizon- a beautiful winter day in DC. She had finished her Christmas shopping with six days to spare, and once she dropped Danielle and her nieces' presents at the FedEx office during her lunch hour, everything would be done. It was the first time she could ever remember being on top of it all this early. It put her in a good mood as she walked in from the parking lot. Everything had been going well in both her professional and personal life. That is to say that there wasn't really anything going on in her personal life beyond catching a beer with Auggie at Allen's over the weekend after he returned from his three week deployment to Iraq with Operation Proper Exit. With only about a week and a half left in 2012, it was starting to look like the Mayans might have had it all wrong.

The DPD had been tastefully decorated for the holidays and a small live Christmas tree twinkled in the corner and gave off a slight pine scent in the bull pen area that ensured that everyone was in the holiday spirit. Next to the tree sat an electric menorah with all of its candles lit, reminding Annie that the last day of Hanukkah had been this past Sunday. Then a synapse in her brain fired and for the briefest moment, a dark cloud threatened her good mood. It was a fleeting fragment of a memory.

"You're not Jewish are you? Good. Well, good for the tattoo, not so good for me going to introduce you to my mom." Followed by the way soft lips ghosted over a wound on her right shoulder.

She shook her head, as if she could physically dislodge the thought before it took root. She had mourned the loss of her trusted friend, and all she wanted to do now was to learn from her mistake, put the past behind her, and move on.

She had not seen Eyal Lavin since she walked away from him at that air strip in West Virginia five weeks ago. In the days that followed she had received word that Khalid Ansari had ordered a hit on her for her role in his botched assassination. She had called Eyal to let him know about the threat and the possibility that he could be targeted as well, but he never returned her calls. She imagined him being debriefed and decommissioned in some poorly lit interrogation chamber deep within the Mossad complex in Tel Aviv. She still would have forgiven him, if he had just picked up the phone and been honest with her, but his silence spoke volumes about where he placed his priorities. She never actually believed that he intentionally used her. Mossad had played fast and loose with the CIA and someone needed to be the sacrificial lamb when they got caught. She felt partially responsible, since it was their friendship that made him their perfect patsy. Maybe that was why he seemed to no longer want anything to do with her, even when she was scared that she was in trouble. Before leaving for Operation Proper Exit ten days later, Auggie had told her that it had been confirmed that Eyal was no longer acting for Mossad, though there were some discrepancies as to whether he had been decommissioned or if he had walked away. She was thankful for his concern, but told him that after the way that everything happened, she didn't really want to know any more about what Eyal was doing. Auggie dropped the subject and never brought it back up.

Fortunately, there had not appeared to be any follow-through on Khalid's threats. One night a few days after she had been warned of the threat she thought she was being followed by a questionable looking man in a parking garage, but by the time she approached her car, he had disappeared. He had apparently just been a questionable looking garden variety Washington DC creeper, not a hired assassin. Then there was a night, about three weeks ago, when she got the unexplainable sensation that she was being watched as she finished moving into her new apartment, but there was no one out of place on the street, no unknown cars, and no tangible sign of any threat. Also, it was hard to explain, but she didn't feel threatened by the surveillance the way she had with the guy in the parking garage. The next day Joan had called it paranoia from her recent constantly hyper-vigilant state, and she had no evidence to refute the theory. There had been some chatter around that time that a known associate of Khalid's had been found murdered and dumped in northern Virginia and he remained determined to exact vengeance, but nothing actionable came of it.

Life had essentially gone back to normal.

Annie took a good, long drag of her coffee while it was still hot and settled her things at her desk for the morning. She looked over to Auggie's office to take him the cup she had bought for him, but found it empty. A quick glance located him easily in Joan's office. She worried for her friend, because being called to Joan's office for a closed door meeting before oh-coffee-thirty in the morning was never a good sign. Then she also noticed Arthur in the room through the partially closed blinds. That was really not good. Maybe she had stared too long, because it was at that moment that Joan seemed to notice her interest in the meeting and stepped to the door.

"Annie, could you come in here please."

Great. Now she was in trouble too. This typical Tuesday morning was headed straight to the crapper.

She cautiously entered the office and took in the scene. There was a vacant chair sitting directly across from Joan's desk and she was ushered to it. Having the seat of honor waiting for you usually meant a scolding in this office. It didn't lift her spirits any to see that Auggie looked terrible. If she had to guess, she would have thought that he had spent most of the night here. Then she recognized the sadness on his face and realized that it was directed towards her, not himself. She frantically looked to the room's other two occupants. Joan looked disheveled as well and exhaustion let her mask of collectedness slip just slightly under Annie's scrutiny. Again, a nervous, sorrowful expression was directed at her. Arthur was her last hope for some kind of optimistic outlook on this situation. He was this agency's rock. Just the facts, no emotions. As long as Arthur still looked impassive it might still be ok. Then she saw it. There was pity in his eyes.

"What's going on here?" Annie demanded.

Surprisingly, it was Arthur that started. "We've intercepted some chatter that we wanted to read you in on."

"Is there an assignment?" She asked hopefully. Maybe they all just felt bad that they were about to force her to work over the holiday.

"No Annie." Joan answered. "The information we intercepted does not particularly pertain to you, but in light of recent events, we thought you should know."

"Then let me know already. This is getting a little creepy."

Arthur again, "Khalid Ansari is dead. He was killed in an explosion in his compound in Saudi Arabia on Sunday night."

Annie let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Not to speak ill of the dead, but this isn't exactly bad news. Why do you all still look like someone stepped on a kitten?"

"Annie, that's not all." It was the first time Auggie had spoken to her.

Joan continued. "The explosion was an assassination. Operatives in the area reported repeated sightings of a suspicious individual, associated with what they assumed was a private sector security firm in the region, for the last three weeks before the attack."

"If they know who's responsible, let me know and I'll go send an Edible Arrangement right now." Annie regretted the sarcastic remark as soon as it left her lips, but she couldn't understand why they were all beating around the bush.

Arthur scowled, Auggie suppressed a smile, and Joan just looked at her patiently before continuing, "What no one knew, was that Khalid had an underground weapons cache beneath the compound. The small explosion set off by the assassin had been intended to destroy only Khalid's personal quarters while he slept. Unfortunately it detonated the weapons cache and obliterated the entire compound."

"So this guy killed a bunch of Khalid's men as well. I'm still not grasping why this is a bad thing in the bigger picture." Annie's impatience was only rising.

Auggie attempted to calm her down. "Based on the intelligence gathered about the type of explosive device the assassin used, he would have had to have been within the extended blast radius created by the underground weapons to detonate the initial explosion."

Joan again, "It was confirmed that the assassin was also killed in the explosion."

"That's tragic, but I still have no freaking clue what…"

Auggie interrupted her. "Eyal was the assassin."

And with those four little words Annie felt the floor drop out from under her. She was in free-fall and scrambled to make sense out of what these people around her were saying. "I don't believe it. There's no way."

That was when Joan produced a thin manila envelope and removed a relatively clear night vision surveillance photograph blown up to eight and a half by eleven. At that level of zoom the image was slightly pixelated, but there was no mistaking the face of the man skulking around the compound wall. "That was taken thirty minutes before the explosion." Then Joan handed her another picture of shards of twisted metal and singed wires on a staged background with evidence markers clearly labeled in the shot.

"The recovered components of the original explosive device were classic Kidon." Auggie added. "Annie, I'm sorry, but we've been going over the evidence all night. It really was Eyal."

Annie's surroundings lurched around her and she barely had time to lean over and grab the garbage bin next to Joan's desk before she began to wretch. As soon as she could lift her head without vomiting again she stated more than asked, "Are we done here? May I be excused?"

"Annie, there's more." Auggie reached over for her shoulder.

"I'm sorry but I can't take any more right now." She couldn't breathe. She had to get out of that office. She bolted for the door before anyone could tell her not to and just kept running. She fled the DPD and continued through the halls, aimlessly scrambling until she burst through a final door and was greeted with sunlight and a cool breeze. It was still the same beautiful morning it had been when she'd entered the building less than an hour before. No one had bothered to tell them that the Mayans were right. On this day in 2012 the world _had_ ended and for some reason, everyone and everything was still going about like it was a typical Tuesday.

She squatted to the ground and began to sob. It wasn't fair. How many more people was she going to lose this year? Jai, Simon, and now Eyal were all dead. Danielle had moved a continent away to try to make it work with her cheating husband. Lena had betrayed her and tried to kill her. Joan had left her for dead in a Russian prison. That thought brought a new wave of guilt and grief for Eyal. The only reason she had survived that ordeal was because of him. Now he was dead because he felt the need to go exact some kind of personal vengeance for that asset he had lost in Amsterdam years ago. That thought made her angry at him. The last time he acted on a hell-bent suicidal vendetta she had been there to help and save him from himself as much as the terrorist he was hunting. Why hadn't he let her know? She could have helped. She could have been there and at the very least he wouldn't have died alone, thinking that his friend hated him.

She was still huddled in the same spot, softly sobbing 15 minutes later when Auggie found her. She hadn't even realized how cold she was until he draped her jacket over her shoulders.

"Walker, you're freezing. Come back inside and get your things. I'm taking you home and there are still some things I need to tell you." He reached a hand down to her to help her up.

She looked up at him tearfully, but accepted the hand. He pulled her up and continued pulling until she fell into his arms. She clung to him and cried. "Auggie, you're all I have left."

"Well don't you worry then, because I'm not going anywhere." He held her until she pulled herself together.

Annie took a few more deep breaths to compose herself and mindlessly dragged the back of her hand around her eyes to wipe up the eye makeup that was undoubtedly streaked down her face. Then she took Auggie's arm and they walked back to the DPD. She quietly got her things together at her desk, and then she and Auggie walked back to the main entrance arm in arm. A black Town Car was waiting for them, and the driver put their bags in the trunk before holding the backdoor open for them. Once everyone was inside, the driver asked for a destination. Annie gave him the address to her new apartment. The statement made her tear up again slightly and she hoped that Auggie wouldn't hear it in her voice.

"So I'll finally get to see these new digs of yours. Relatively speaking." He tried to lighten the mood.

"Yeah. Sorry, it's still kind of a mess."

"If you hadn't told me, I never would have known." He smiled at her, trying to be reassuring.

She was only partly paying attention. Her mind was racing half way across town to a different apartment, the one that she had continued to stay in for nearly two weeks even after the mess in West Virginia. She had hoped that the official occupant of record would have come back at some point so that they could talk. When four days passed and he had never shown up, she assumed he was already back in Tel Aviv. That was when the information regarding the contract on her life had come through. She stayed through the next week because there was unlikely to be any safer place for her in the city. Even if someone could have traced the apartment back to Eyal, no one would have expected her to be staying at the personal apartment of the Mossad operative that just fed her false intel. When no actual threat had panned out she had started thinking about getting her own place. Then one night after making yet another plea to his voicemail, she caught herself holding one of the pillows from the bed a little too tightly because it still faintly smelled like him. That was when she knew it was time to get her own place and stop living in the mausoleum dedicated to her failed friendship. She moved out the next day.

The rest of the 15 minute ride to her new apartment passed in silence, as did the elevator ride to the third floor and the walk down the hallway. She led Auggie through the front door and helped him to a bar stool at the kitchen counter while she rummaged through a box marked "kitchen" that still sat unpacked on the counter.

Auggie heard the clink of glass bottles and the sound of liquid splashing into a glass. "Don't you think it's a little early for…" He sniffed in the direction of the drink she was obviously pouring. "What is that? Whiskey and Peychaud?" He crinkled his nose.

"I was going for a Sazerac, but dammit, I'm out of Pernod."

"That's an interesting choice for drowning whatever it is you're feeling right now." Auggie admitted.

"It was his favorite." She commented quietly. "It's what he would be drinking if he had lost a friend. Seems fitting."

Auggie had known that she never truly believed in Eyal's supposed betrayal. Truth be told, Auggie didn't buy it either. He couldn't read body language anymore, but he had become a master at hearing the unspoken words in people's voices. He still remembered the first time he spoke to Eyal on the phone about Annie's capture in Russia. He had had reservations about reaching out to the competing agency's spy, but they evaporated the moment they started speaking. The length of the pause and the hitch in his breathing when he gave him the news, the immediacy with which he agreed to help, and the lack of questions regarding the circumstances that placed her there were all tells. He recognized the sounds of a man that cared more than he knew he was supposed to. Meeting the man face to face only improved his impression of the Mossad agent. Auggie had no plausible way to reconcile that man with the actions Eyal was accused of. His only real concern was that history was in the process of repeating itself in the form of Annie's predilections for male companions. Long story short, Auggie had liked the guy, and he knew that Annie had trusted him entirely, against all odds and advice. That made what he was about to do that much harder.

"Then why don't you mix me up one as well."

She mixed another one and slid it into his outstretched hand. "Sorry it's missing ingredients." She murmured.

"I don't think the taste is really the point right now." He held up his glass in her general direction. "To Eyal."

"To Eyal." She repeated and clinked her glass against his. They both downed the entire contents of their glasses in a long swallow. She poured herself another, but Auggie put a hand over his glass to indicate that one was enough for him. "I just can't believe he's gone."

"I'm so sorry Annie. Joan and I spent the entire night vetting the information. We wouldn't have come to you if we weren't absolutely certain."

"But how can you be certain? It must have been a huge explosion."

"There was DNA."

"Oh." She was reeling, her hopes dashed. She had to grip the counter top to steady herself.

"I know how hard this is Annie, and I'm afraid what I need to tell you now isn't going to make this any easier."

"What could possibly make this worse?"

Auggie removed an envelope from the pocket in the inner lining of his coat. "This was hand delivered to the base I was stationed at in Al Basrah last week by a man in fatigues that disappeared immediately after and couldn't be identified by the lieutenant he left the letter with."

He slid the envelope across the counter to her and the block lettering on the outside made her breath catch in her throat.

ANNIE WALKER

c/o CAPT. AUGUST ANDERSON

OPERATION PROPER EXIT

"Does Joan know about this?" Annie questioned, turning it over and over in her hands, afraid that opening it and reading the contents would somehow make everything true.

"Not yet. I wanted to give you a chance to read it first."

"Did you…" she trailed off as her mind raced about what message she might be about to receive from her friend beyond the grave.

"I had no idea who it was from or if it was an emergency, so I had a buddy read me the first few lines. I figured it out pretty quick and didn't read the rest."

"Why didn't you say something about this on Sunday at Allen's?"

"The last time we talked about Eyal you said you didn't want to hear anything more about him. I hung onto the letter in case you changed your mind at some point. When I heard about what happened, I figured you would want it after all."

She walked around the counter and sat on the stool next to Auggie. Then she slowly opened the envelope and removed the two tri-folded pieces of paper inside. She unfolded the paper carefully, treating each crease as if the document in her hands was the Dead Sea Scrolls. The writing inside was tall neat script in black ink, and it reminded her of an impromptu birthday card scrawled on the back of a Paris transit system brochure. It read:

_Dearest Neshema,_

_I know that I don't deserve it, but I hope that you can find some way in that over-sized, overly-trusting soft heart of yours to forgive me for what I have done to you, and for what I am about to do. I have always worked alone. It keeps everything simple. I was not looking for partner or a friend, as those attachments only serve to conflict motivations in our line of work. Trust is a dangerous emotion for a spy. It tends to lead you towards danger instead of away from it. It makes you break into places you should be avoiding, hold fast when you should be retreating, and attack when you should be going to ground. It makes you vulnerable. But that deeper connection with another person is also what makes us human. I still trust you completely. I have since we first met. That trust has been used against me and against you, and knowing that it was used, though unknowingly on my part, to betray you, causes me a pain I cannot express to you. My actions towards you when last we spoke were inexcusable. I have no expectation of ever being able to regain your trust, but that will not stop me from doing what I now know is right. I have tried my hardest to keep you safe from Khalid's threats. The target in the garage got too close, but I made sure to never allow the others anywhere near that close to you again. Staying in my apartment had kept you impossible for them to find, but it seems that my interference created a false sense of security. When I saw you move into that new apartment, very nice choice by the way, I knew that the threat would only get worse. You would never be safe as long as Khalid remained alive, so I have taken the fight to him. I wanted to approach you that night as you were moving into your new place and say good bye in person, but I was not sure of your feelings towards me, and I did not want to cause you any further undue pain. I trust that Auggie will get this letter to you. By the time that he does, I will have completed my mission and you will be safe. I know that this is not what you would want and that you will probably wish that you had been here to help me, but it must be done, and I must do it alone. I have often found myself wondering, as of late, how different our lives would be if that simple brush pass in Zurich had not been compromised. Would we have never gotten to know each other and been spared this heartache, or would the current have simply guided us together at another time and place? All questions I do not have the answers to. What I do know is that you have saved me, more times than you count, and the trust you had in me, for however short a time, has made me a better man. I am sorry that I will not likely be able to deliver these sentiments in person. That is my only regret in this mission. May you always continue to trust in people Annie. It is not a weakness, but your greatest strength._

_Your trusting friend,_

_-E_

Annie folded the letter back and began to weep for her friend. He had sacrificed himself to save her one last time.

Auggie ached for his friend. He stood, took a step towards her, and wrapped her in his arms. She clung onto him for dear life and continued to cry. After about twenty minutes of wordless tears, she seemed to find some peace and extracted herself from Auggie's arms to grab some tissues and finish her drink. Then she opened the letter and re-read it. This time her eyes welled with moisture again, but the dam did not break.

Curiosity got the better of her and she questioned one section of the letter. With a still shaky voice she asked, "He says something about a target in the parking garage and others that he didn't let get that close again. What was he talking about?"

Auggie reached for his messenger bag, and produced the dreaded manila envelope that Joan had held earlier. "While I was gone, Joan received some flagged intel. She thought it was better not to tell you after everything that had happened. She was afraid it would mess with your emotional stability."

He pulled out a stack of pictures from the file with small brail indentations along the bottom. "I assume you recognize this man as your 'creeper' from the parking garage?" He handed her an 8x10 of the same man, except the image was a morgue photo.

"He didn't have that extra hole in his forehead the last time I saw him, but yeah, that's him."

"His name was Garret Larson, a known mercenary with ties to middle eastern oil conglomerates, including Khalid's family. His body was found dumped in a northern Virginia field just off of I 95 three days after he stalked you in the garage." Next a close up image of the bullet retrieved from his skull was handed to her. "Ballistics were a match to the bullet retrieved from Griffin Cole. That's what flagged it on Joan's radar."

"But Eyal shot Cole. I was right there. He was back in Tel Aviv by the time this guy was following me."

"In an effort to further their damage control with the CIA, last night Mossad voluntarily offered the information that Eyal, being faced with decommissioning back in Israel, quit the agency that night after the shooting in West Virginia and elected to stay in the US to seek work with some private sector security firms."

"Why didn't he tell me?"

"I think because he wasn't here job hunting. He stayed to protect you." He didn't need to see her face to know how her expression had just fallen. He slid out three more morgue photos from the file. "These three men were all found dumped in the greater DC area in the following week. In addition to their matching execution style head shots with the same ballistics, they all had ties to organized crime overseas and histories consistent with being guns for hire."

"But how did he get this information? Where was he staying?"

"Likely he hit up former contacts for information or favors. Stay in this business long enough and you inevitably end up with people that owe you. As for where he stayed, Mossad also gave us a list of his former aliases so that we could track his movements. It turns out that one of his aliases has kept an apartment in DC for the last two years."

"2303 West 14th Street, apartment 706?"

"How did you know that?"

She nudged her key ring on the counter so that it gave an audible jingle that he would understand. "That's where I was living since I got back from Russia until three weeks ago when I moved in here."

Auggie was flabbergasted. "You two were living together? I thought you said…"

"It wasn't like that. He was never there the whole time I stayed there."

"But why?"

"When I got home from Russia I tried to go back to Danielle's, but I couldn't even step through the door. All I could see was Lena shooting Simon then aiming at me. I couldn't stay there."

"You could have called me." Auggie was slightly hurt that she had gone to the other spy instead of him.

"I didn't want to be a bother to anyone and after everything I just wanted to be alone, so I went to a hotel. Then I went down to the hotel bar and he was waiting there for me. He had known I wouldn't be able to stay in that house and had followed me. He was flying back to Tel Aviv that night and offered to let me stay at his place as long as I needed since it would just be empty."

She remembered how comforted she had been when he had brought her into his home. It had been the first time she had felt safe in a long time. Now, as she seemed to once again be sinking in quicksand, she yearned for that feeling of safety. She needed it. Now. Suddenly getting back to that apartment was the only thing that mattered.

Auggie could sense her tension in the rustling of her now impatient movements. "Are you alright?"

"Yes. No. I'm… It's just a lot to take in and I think my brain has reached its limit. Is there anything else that you needed to tell me?"

"Just that you're not alone. I know how much he meant to you, and no matter what Mossad said, there are a lot more people that believe you than them at the CIA. No one takes this loss lightly, and you can come to any of us if you need to talk, me especially. No one's going to judge you for how you feel."

"I don't even know how I feel right now. I think I just need some time to process."

"Alright, but if you need anything, you call. You hear me?"

"Will do." She smiled at her friend. He was the only one she had left now.

"I think I can see myself out."

"Thanks Auggie."

"Any time."

She watched out her window and a few minutes later she saw him get into the waiting Town Car and pull away. Then she took the letter, carefully folded it, replaced it in the envelop, and then slid it into her purse before darting from the apartment. Her car was still at Langley, so she hailed a cab. Within twenty minutes she was in his building's elevator, speeding towards the seventh floor.

She wasn't sure what she was hoping to find there. Maybe he had left something else for her. Maybe being surrounded by his things would help her grieve. Maybe she could just sit there and pretend for a little longer that he might come walking in through the front door at any minute.

Her key jiggled in the lock and the door slowly swung open before her. Nothing stirred in the apartment, all the lights were off and the curtains drawn, just as she lad left it. There was suddenly an eerie lifelessness to the place and she began to more fully appreciate the term "still as the grave". She stepped inside and quietly closed the door behind her. She looked around the kitchen and the living room and found nothing out of place or obviously left where she would find it. Her heart sank a little. She dropped her purse on the counter and prepared to flip on the lights when she could have sworn she heard a muffled sound from the bedroom. She waited silently and was just about to dismiss the sound as her imagination when she heard it again. As quietly as she could, she withdrew her gun from her purse and tip-toed towards the bedroom. She could only imagine what she had walked in on. It could have been a Mossad clean up team coming to clear out the place now that the owner was never coming back, or maybe a CIA team checking for any shards of intelligence the former Mossad agent may have left lying around. Or there was a worse option. What if it was someone from Khalid's organization gunning for revenge. She gripped her pistol firmly in both hands, took a deep breath and spun around the doorframe to finally see what awaited her on the other side. Nothing in her wildest imagination had prepared her for what she found.

Her eyes easily recognized the form of a man in the dark, sleeping on his back, sheets drawn to his bare chest, and intermittently making a soft snoring sound. The problem was that her brain simply would not assimilate the information her eyes were attempting to force it to process. Eyal Lavin had died two days ago in a massive explosion half a world away. He was not, could not possibly be, soundly asleep in the bed in front of her. This was it. She had finally lost her mind.

Suddenly it was like the inside of her chest was on fire and she couldn't breathe. She stepped forward and put the gun on the night table next to her while bracing against the piece of furniture for support. "Eyal?" She managed to croak out louder than she had thought she was capable of at the moment.

It was likely a credit to his years of time in the field, but the single sound of his name was enough to spring him into wakefulness. He was sitting up in bed with his eyes locked on her as quickly as she could blink. "Annie." He whispered.

Her mind and body failed her at the sound of her name and she just dropped to her knees. He was out of the bed and at her side in a flash. He wrapped his arms under hers and pulled her to her feet. "Annie, what's wrong? Say something."

The touch of his hands on her arms, tangible proof that he was actually there holding her brought her crashing back to reality. "What's wrong?" She shrieked at him. "You are supposed to be dead. Do you have any idea what you did to me?"

"Annie, I'm sorry I didn't call as soon as I got back, but I have been on the run for two days and the jet lag from Dubai is a bitch." He quirked the corner of his mouth at her in a friendly smile.

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!" She pushed away from him and stood under her own control again.

"And that bothered you?" He asked, seeming unsure if he wanted to hear the answer.

"Yes Eyal. The thought that you died alone thousands of miles away sacrificing yourself to protect me left me slightly perturbed!" She yelled at him sarcastically. It was only then that she calmed enough to take in the sight of him. He wore only a pair of linen pajama pants with the drawstring loosely tethering them at the top of his hip bones. A large bruise was beginning to turn that ugly yellowish and purple color over the lower part of his rib cage on the left, and a similar but darker bruise covered his left shoulder and upper arm. A bandage was in place over his right shoulder and two days' worth of unshaved stubble couldn't hide the split in his lip or the cut along his right cheek bone.

"I wasn't sure if you still cared or what you believed." He averted his eyes and suddenly found the floor very interesting.

Then she surprised him by throwing her arms around him and pulling him into a tight embrace. "I believed in you… you selfish asshole." She murmured into his chest with a smile. "I never stopped believing in you."

He wrapped his arms around her in return and stroked her hair as he rested his cheek against the top of her head. He whispered "Neshema" over and over as he held her.

Her hands played across the warm flesh of his back and softly grazed over multiple superficial abrasions starting to scab over and a long straight wound just under the bandage on his right shoulder that had been stitched up. Judging by his injuries, she guessed she really hadn't come that far from losing him. "How did you survive? Someone said they found your DNA as one of the victims." She pulled back and looked up at him.

He relaxed his arms around her slightly and guided them to the corner of the bed, where they both sat. "I knew about the underground weapons stash. It seemed like a great way to get rid of the entire cell all at once. So I waited for the perfect opportunity and planted the explosive device where I knew it would take out everything. I had added a remote detonation device with a greater range than the type typically used by Kidon. I suspected that I had been made by some Mossad and CIA operatives in the area, so my exit strategy needed to be slightly more elaborate. I had planned to plant some evidence after the explosion to suggest that I had perished in the blast as well. The detonation went according to plan, so I had thought." He looked over at her and tightened his arm that was now resting around her waist. "I went back to plant some of my blood that I had drawn earlier at the scene near the extensively charred remains of a man that had been roughly my height and size, though not nearly as attractive mind you." He flashed her the cocky smile she had become so accustomed to.

"Well that part just goes without saying." She smiled back flirtatiously.

"That was when a secondary explosion in a sealed off chamber of the weapons cache discharged. The force slammed me back against an already crumbling edifice. I lost consciousness only briefly and still managed to escape. It ultimately worked in my favor, as I ended up leaving more than a little blood at the scene for the DNA analysts to find." He nodded towards the bandage on his shoulder. "So Khalid was neutralized and I was a dead man, safely on my way home."

"And home is in DC now?" She raised an eyebrow at him questioningly.

"Perhaps you haven't heard, but I'm out of a job. I hear that kind of thing happens a lot in this country."

She rolled her eyes at him. "So I hear."

"I might go talk to some of the private security firms that are based here but do a lot of work in the middle east. A dead Mossad agent is a very attractive hire for these companies that like to run less regulated, off the books type missions in that region."

She scoffed, "So you quit Mossad on principal to go be some black ops gun for hire?"

"It's not like I have many other options." He shrugged.

That was when something Auggie had said earlier in the day played back through her mind.

"… _you're not alone. I know how much he meant to you, and no matter what Mossad said, there are a lot more people that believe you than them at the CIA."_

A plan had started to formulate in her head. She jumped up off the bed and turned to face him. "Just wait right here." She put a hand on his chest as she made her demand.

"You're leaving?"

"I'll be back." She smiled at him. "You just need to trust me." And with that she grabbed her purse and ran out the door.

Forty-five minutes, and more mass transit transfers than she cared for, later she was walking back through the door to the DPD. Her return instantly caught Joan's eye.

"Annie, I wasn't expecting you to be back in the office today."

"I need to speak with you. Can we go to your office?"

"Certainly." Joan was a little concerned about the drastic change in demeanor from a few hours earlier, but whatever Annie needed to tell her seemed important so she was willing to overlook it.

Joan lead the way to her office and took a seat behind her desk. "What can I do for you Annie?"

"It's not for me as much as it is for a friend of mine." She fished Eyal's letter out of her purse and handed it to Joan.

Joan took the letter from her and carefully read every line.

As soon as Joan looked up from the letter Annie began, "There is only one lie in that letter."

"Annie…" Joan cautioned.

"He absolutely intended to make it back."

"This isn't healthy. Let me set you up with a grief counselor. They can help you work through this."

"Just tell me if you really believe that Eyal went rogue and intentionally fed us false intel."

Joan sighed. What did it matter now anyway. "I've known Rivka for a long time, and I don't trust that woman as far as I could throw her. I am far more inclined to believe you interpretation of the events."

"That's what I'm talking about!" Annie slapped her hand on the desk.

Joan looked a little taken aback, but was glad that she finally seemed to be connecting with the young operative.

"We still haven't filled Jai's spot here in the DPD from when he was promoted, right?"

The question seemed extremely non sequitur to Joan, but she figured that Annie would eventually get to the point. "That's correct. We have yet to find the ideal operative to work with the teams that we already have in place."

"What if I told you that I could bring in an asset to fill the position?"

"That would be highly unorthodox, and I can't imagine that someone from outside this agency could fill the requirements that we already have a difficult enough time filling from within."

"This person has years of top level field experience and has already worked missions with multiple people in this department, including myself, Auggie, and even you."

"Annie, I'm a little confused as to who you could be talking about, and I'm starting to get more than a little worried about you. You got some difficult news this morning and I'm not sure you're thinking clearly right now. Maybe you should…"

Annie leaned forward and whispered across the table, "Eyal's alive."

"Ok Annie, this is getting ridiculous." Joan feared that the morning's news may have finally cracked the young woman.

"I know, it's all ridiculous, but I swear to you, I just came from his apartment where he is a bit battered and bruised but very much alive."

"Even if what you're saying is true, there is no way we could just hire an operative that Mossad just threatened to fire specifically for feeding us false intel. It would be a relations nightmare."

"That's the beauty of it. Everyone thinks he's dead. We set him up with a new alias and keep his missions as covert as possible, and we gain one of the most talented operatives in the game. And he really has nowhere else to go." Annie pleaded her case.

Joan thought on the prospect for a moment. She knew Eyal's resume and record in the field from Mossad. He was occasionally stubborn, but had a record of proven results regardless. He had done exactly as she had requested when she asked for an evaluation of Annie in the field from Mossad earlier in the year. She had also seen the way that he and Annie complemented each other's style on missions. Where she could sometimes be too soft, he could be brutal. They were the proverbial stick and carrot. Also, Joan wasn't blind. Hell, that didn't even matter because even Auggie could see that there were feelings between the two, whether they realized the extent of those feeling or not. They had both already disobeyed direct orders from their superiors to continue working together in the past. Whatever other type of job the Israeli man would take, Joan had no doubt that the two would find themselves in collusion again before long. At least if he was working under the purview of the DPD she could keep tabs on them and possibly even control the pair. She also realized the affect this would have on Annie's morale and trust in her and the Agency, something that had been severely lacking since Lena's attack.

"There is no way we could send him out alone, at least at first. He would have to have a handler in the field with him until we could be certain that we could trust him."

"I'd volunteer." Annie responded immediately.

Joan couldn't hide the smile at the predictability. "You would essentially have to work as partners. Is that something he would be ok with?"

"Somehow I don't think he would mind." Annie smiled.

"You don't think? Have you even discussed this proposal with him?" Joan asked. She had no doubt the man would agree to it – he had quit Mossad for her, but she wanted to make sure that Annie had really thought this through. It also wouldn't do her any good to seem like a pushover.

"Not exactly." Annie cringed

"Then I suggest you do so and get him back here this afternoon. Arthur will have to sign off on it, but somehow I don't think that will be a problem." She smiled at Annie and handed Eyal's letter back to her.

"Thank you." She smiled genuinely at her boss then left the office.

As she walked out she saw Auggie in his office taking off his head phones and pushing back from his computer. Perfect timing. "Hey Auggie." She greeted warmly.

"Walker? What are you doing here and why do you sound, dare I say it, perky?"

"You just heading out for lunch?"

"I was, but by the tone of your inquiry I suspect that is about to change."

"Come with me. There's something I need to show you."

He made his way over to her in the doorway and took her arm. "I do hope you meant that metaphorically."

She laughed, "Come on."

They made their way to her car in the employee parking lot and, despite having to fight the tail end of lunch hour traffic, they were at Eyal's apartment in 30 minutes. She had given Auggie nothing but vague cryptic answers about their destination, her change in mood, or what her urgent meeting with Joan had been about.

Annie turned to Auggie as she unlocked the door and stepped inside. "This is Eyal's apartment." Off of his hesitation she continued. "There's more. Try not to freak out."

The sight that greeted her was the same as last time. The apartment remained darkened and nothing stirred that she could see in the kitchen or living room. "Eyal! I'm back and I brought someone with me." Only continued silence responded to her.

"Eyal?" Auggie questioned, stunned.

Annie wondered if maybe he was still asleep. She turned the corner into the bedroom and found the bed empty with the sheets neatly made. There was no evidence that anyone had been in the apartment at all. And for a moment she worries that maybe everyone else was right and she had gone crazy and imagined it all.

Just then Eyal stepped out of the bathroom, hair damp and a towel draped around his waist. "This isn't exactly what I had hoped for when I heard you say you were back and had brought a friend." He leered suggestively at her, then smiled warmly at Auggie. "But it's good to see you Auggie."

"The feeling is mutual." He stuck out a hand and Eyal shook it with fervor. "But since, based on Annie's reaction, I'm guessing that you are not actually wearing clothes, I'm going to ask that we forego the hug this time."

Eyal smiled and wagged a finger at him. "I knew I liked you." He then turned and addressed Annie as well. "Give me a moment and I'll be right with you."

"Well hurry up and dress nice. You've got a job interview in an hour." She smiled at him.

Then Annie and Auggie stepped back into the kitchen and took seats at the table.

"But how is this possible?" Auggie asked her.

Annie retold the story of the bombing and outlined her meeting with Joan.

"You've really convinced Joan to let Eyal work for the DPD?" Auggie was incredulous.

Just then Annie looked up and realized that Eyal had silently materialized right in front of them.

"You've convinced Joan of what?" Eyal repeated, also unbelievingly.

"If you want, there is a vacancy in the DPD for a field operative that we've been trying to fill for nearly a year. Joan agreed that its yours if you're willing to accept a few stipulations."

"What kind of stipulations?" Eyal and Auggie both asked simultaneously.

She smiled at the two most important men in her life. "For a while, until the higher ups are convinced that you can be entirely trusted, you would have to be supervised in the field."

"What does that mean?" Eyal didn't like the sound of it.

"It means you'd be stuck with me as a partner, at least for a little while." Annie clarified.

His eyes brightened. "Somehow I think I could manage that." Then he looked to Auggie, "But I know you two have worked together for a long time. I don't want to step on any toes."

"Hey, its ok with me. I'm not going to complain about any situation that ends up with somebody having her back in the field on missions. And if it can't be me, there's not really anyone I'd trust to take care of her more than you."

"Then if we're all in agreement, it looks like it's time for us to get back to work." She smiled at them.

The trio returned to Langley and Annie and Eyal ended up in meetings with Joan, Arthur, polygraphers, and other higher ups for the entire afternoon. When six o'clock finally rolled around, and it was all said and done, Arthur Campbell shook Eyal Lavin's hand and welcomed him to the CIA.

Annie was eager to celebrate, and much of the department wanted to actually get to meet the new operative they'd be working with, so they headed over to Allen's. The medium sized group was seated around the outdoor space heater on the patio and was well into their second round of pitchers as Eyal was regaling Barber with the tale of Annie's alternative use for the bondage gear they found in the Zurich safe house. His trademark charisma had ingratiated him with the group quickly, and his offering to buy the first round didn't hurt either.

Annie sat back in her chair and pondered the improbability of it all. She took a good long look at her new partner. She realized that her instinctual reactions to hearing of Eyal's death and the sheer joy she was feeling now at the prospect of their careers further intertwining went well beyond the mere friendship and mutual respect of a colleague that they had both always claimed. They were feelings that were going to warrant further investigation at some point, but it wasn't going to be tonight. Tonight she was just going to sit back and enjoy it all. It had started off as a typical Tuesday, and while the world hadn't exactly ended that day, that world as she had known it sure had.

The End.

**A/N: This is my hope for what the show writers have planned as an end game for Eyal this season. I know that the real CIA would likely never hire a former spy from another agency, but if this show were that realistic, a blind guy wouldn't be in charge of tech-ops and surveillance. Just sayin'. I started this story the minute I finished posting "Stay" last night, and it just wouldn't let me stop. I can't believe I just wrote a 9,000 word story in a day! Hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.**


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